SCi Sales Group

The value of human interaction in B2B sales

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Smith) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:26:00 +0000

The emphasis on digital marketing has affected investment in other channels. So have we lost sight of the benefits that ‘live’ human interaction can bring to B2B sales?

There’s no doubt small company purchases can be done online without HI, but do buyers still need the confidence they get from a telephone conversation or meeting before they consider that large order?

The following is an extract from a White Paper which you can view by clicking ‘The value of Human Interaction in B2B Sales’.

1. Defining Human Interaction (HI)
There are many types of interaction in B2B sales, some are immediate, some are two-way, some personal and some not.

Events offer real-time, two-way interaction with visitors; but they are ‘crowd’ based. The exhibition stand or seminar needs broad appeal to attract sufficient visitors; it’s not an individualised event and does not feel ‘personal’.

Direct Mail, Email, Social Media and some Websites are able to interact with individuals, but the engagement is often delayed as you wait for a response from the other side.

Trade Magazines and many Websites offer only one-way engagement. Buyers need to use other channels to respond (Email, Telephone, etc).

Possibly the most ‘human’ interaction is a real-time, personal and two-way conversation. For that reason we will confine our definition of HI to Telemarketing and Field Sales.

2. Where is HI most effective?
HI is not as cheap as other marketing tools, such as sending an email blast. To ensure maximum ROI we have to use it wisely.

So where is HI most effective in a B2B sales process?

To answer this question SCi Sales Group researched a group of buyers across a wide range of vertical markets and job titles.

The group were asked if they had either a telephone conversation or meeting with a company representative before placing orders on their last 3 purchases.

Just over 68% of buyers had some form of HI before making their purchasing decision.
But the figures are more revealing when we examine the size of order. The average order value with HI is £68,032, but with no HI the order value drops to £1,018.

This supports the theory that when it comes to placing the big orders, buyers want to talk to someone on the phone or meet them in person to be assured they are making the right decision.

3. What are the benefits of HI?
The emphasis on data, digital channels and automation has perhaps taken focus away from interacting with customers as people. We need to recognise that HI makes customers feel valued. Consider the following example:

It’s your birthday. Friends congratulate you in different
ways. Which friend makes you feel more valued?
Sally sends you a text message,
Raj sends you an email,
Peter sends you a birthday card,
Heather gives you a telephone call,
Simon visits you at home.

This translates to Mobile Marketing (Sally), Email Marketing (Raj), Direct Mail (Peter), Telemarketing (Heather) and Field Sales (Simon).

We asked Managers on LinkedIn the same question, the top two channels were Field Sales and Telemarketing – both have HI.

However there are many advantages to HI beyond making buyers feel valued. HI enables better explanation of complex sales, it’s also easier to identify buying signals, predict objections and steer the conversation.

Conclusion
The whirlwind advance of digital marketing has resulted in a stampede as Marketing Managers race to ‘land grab’ their part of the digital space.

In the frenzy we may have lost sight of one enduring fact… buyers are people; always have been, always will be.

Can our marketing truly connect with buyers if we treat them as just ‘data’ and a ‘digital footprint’?

It’s often stated that “people buy from people”, so using marketing channels with HI (such as Telemarketing or Field Sales) should give you a competitive edge.

HI provides Marketing Managers with quality sales leads on large orders, and repeat or closed business on small orders. Plus it has an ability to make buyers feel truly valued, all of which demonstrates the benefit of human interaction in B2B sales.

How to increase customer loyalty by using the right marketing channels

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Smith) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:06:00 +0000

We’re all familiar with the 4 Ps of the marketing mix; right product, right price, right place, right promotion. It could be argued that customer loyalty follows a similar pattern.

In order for customers to remain loyal you perhaps need product continuity, competitive prices, convenient place and appropriate communication. The 4 Cs. Communication is the focus of this article.

Understanding buyer behaviour
There are two parts to the buying process; information and negotiation. In the information phase (sourcing suppliers) buying behaviour has changed, largely due to the impact of the internet.

Analysis of the Buyersphere Report 2011 shows the major sources of information for buyers are ‘Suppliers Website’ (70%) and ‘Web Searches’ (65%), and the biggest increases in usage have been ‘Online Events/Webinars’ (up 170%) and ‘LinkedIn’ (up 100%).

The result of all this online activity is that alternative suppliers are just a click away.

In addition to being indiscriminate in the information phase, buyers are also less loyal in the negotiation phase.

We conducted a series of online surveys to determine the loyalty of buyers when offered lower prices by alternative suppliers. 76% of buyers would change supplier if offered up to a 10% discount on a purchase of £2,000.

Loyalty comes at a price, and it seems the price has little elasticity.

Choosing channels that make customers feel valued
We conducted a survey on LinkedIn about the relationship between marketing channels and the perception of being valued.

Managers outside of marketing were encouraged to participate, and to further avoid any prejudice in their choice we phrased the question in a non-marketing format. Over 600 Managers responded to the following question:

“It’s your birthday. Five friends congratulate you using different
methods. Which friend values you most?”
Simon visits you at home (Field Sales)
Heather gives you a telephone call (Telemarketing)
Peter sends you a birthday card (Direct Mail)
Sally sends you a text message (Mobile Marketing)
Raj sends you an email (Email Marketing)

Channels that use Human Interaction (HI) performed best, while the digital channels of Email and Mobile Marketing are seen to value people least. It seems that valuing customers is linked to having a two-way, ‘live’ conversation (either face-to-face or over the telephone).

Conclusion
Buying behaviour has changed, the internet has made it easier to source new suppliers and change supplier the minute a better price is offered. To keep customers loyal you need to show how much you appreciate their custom.

We react to different channels in different ways, and using channels with HI has the ability to add value to the relationship. In addition, HI can cement relationships on repeat orders and increase average order value.

Check your marketing schedule and see if Telemarketing or Field Sales could play a bigger role in your plans – after all, it costs 5-10 times more to acquire a new customer than keep an existing one.

A Knowledge Book is available on this subject, please click ‘How to increase customer loyalty by using the right marketing channels’ to view the PDF.

What’s the biggest challenge facing B2B Marketing?

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Smith) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:51:00 +0000

Holger Schulze recently set a challenge on LinkedIn. He asked Marketing Managers to describe in one word the biggest challenge facing B2B Marketing.

Over 260 senior managers and directors took part and we have analysed all the responses and formed a word cloud of the top 50.

Data and Content came top as the biggest challenge for B2B Marketing, with Relevance running a close second. The top 10 are as follows:

Data
Content
Relevance
Differentiation
ROI
Creativity
Insight
Trust
Value
Budget

The value of good Data in B2B telemarketing is immediately apparent the moment you make a call. That’s why SCi Sales Group have invested in the collation and constant cleaning of a database that holds 2.9m data points in the UK and 1.8m in Europe. It’s our most precious resource.

We also agree with our marketing colleagues that Content and Relevance are a big challenge. A B2B call lives or dies by whether the message is relevant to the target audience and has substantial content. These are key questions we debate in the Workshops we organise with clients for all our campaigns.

Do you agree with the results of the LinkedIn question? What’s your view on the biggest challenge facing B2B marketing… and can you describe it in one word?

How does telemarketing compare to other marketing channels?

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Smith) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:34:00 +0000

B2B Marketing magazine recently published an insight into the effectiveness of various business-to-business marketing channels. It looked at current trends and attitudes in the UK market.

One question revealed some interesting results. UK B2B Marketing Managers and Directors were asked “Which type of marketing channel has proven to be the most/least effective for your business?”

The results were displayed as a percentage of respondents, but we have analysed the figures and expressed them as an Index Score. This shows the difference between those that feel the channel is effective and those that don’t. The higher the score, the more effective the channel.

We have listed the top 5 most effective channels and the bottom 5 least effective.

No surprises that email marketing tops the chart, although the reliance of Marketing Managers on digital marketing does raise the question “Whatever happened to multi-channel marketing?” – a subject we will discuss in future issues.

Some people may be surprised that in the age of digital marketing and social media that Telemarketing makes it into the top 5. We are not surprised at all. The question was about the effectiveness of marketing channels and telemarketing can still deliver results that other channels can only dream about.

If you want to view the ROI figures for some of our recent telemarketing campaigns and judge for yourself whether Telemarketing is effective please click here.

Now for the least effective channels.

Press advertising is at the bottom of the list and, surprisingly, online banner/button adverts. Sponsorship, Exhibitions and Direct Mail to potential customers also make an appearance (but Direct Mail to existing customers is considered to be effective, ranking 3rd).

How do these charts marry with your experience? Which are the most and least effective channels for you?

5 tips on choosing the right B2B Telemarketing agency

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Smith) — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:18:00 +0000

How do you select the right B2B Telemarketing agency? We asked ourselves this question and here’s the top 5 items we would consider.

1. Choose an outbound B2B specialist
Seems obvious, but there are many telemarketing companies that try to do both B2B and B2C. There’s a world of difference between the two disciplines and you need to choose a specialist. In addition, the skills required for outbound calls are very different to those required for inbound order taking or customer care.

2. Don’t use a script
Our experience is that scripts don’t work, especially in the B2B environment. The call needs to have a natural flow and deal with objections logically. A script cannot anticipate all possible outcomes.

SCi Sales Group always conducts a workshop with its clients prior to a campaign going live and key messages are established which act as anchor points for the conversation. And it is a conversation. A dialogue between two business people about a subject that can benefit the target audience.

3. Don’t use casual, part-time or student callers
Some telemarketing companies use casual labour, part-time workers or students to make your important business calls – some even use people working at home or off-shore call centres.

Buyer beware. Beside the obvious issues of the commercial awareness and maturity of students, you also have to consider the drive and enthusiasm of casual and part-time workers – and how that will be transferred over the phone.

Managing a telemarketing campaign needs to be hands-on, you need to be able to make improvements to the proposition and message as new information becomes available. That’s not easy to do with home-workers or offshore companies.

4. Interview them on the phone
You wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive, so test drive your B2B telemarketing agency. Interview them over the phone rather than inviting them to pitch with a fancy PowerPoint presentation and smart field sales executive.

You need to know if they are as good as they claim. If they cannot persuade you to choose them over the phone then maybe they will struggle trying to convince your target audience.

5. You can’t beat age and experience
Ask about the average age and business experience of the telemarketers that will be working on your campaign. People buy from people and a mature, experienced team will be able to deliver your message with confidence and clarity.

Ask to listen to some of the conversations they are having when you visit the company’s premises and decide if they have the right tone and ‘voice’ for your product or service.

Conclusion
Selecting the right telemarketing company for your campaign is vital – they will be representing you in one of the most personal forms of marketing communication. Get it wrong and the damage to your reputation and brand could be immense.

Our top 5 tips are just a few from a long list of items you need to consider before pushing the button. To discuss all the others please give Brendan O’Flaherty a call, without obligation, on 020 8846 3950.